


Stone, Sand, and Memories

by Bashcat



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 10:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8747437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bashcat/pseuds/Bashcat
Summary: Ahsoka Tano takes a trip to Korriban and finds it a little less uninhabited than she expected.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A short story while I work on bigger things. Polished perhaps too much for its size, but hopefully more enjoyable than the last one. The only warnings here are for slightly off math and vaguely creepy temple exploration.
> 
> (I am unsure if this is Prequels or OT, so just 'Star Wars' will have to do)

The little ship shot out of hyperspace, descending rapidly down toward the planet below. Ahsoka Tano leaned forward a little, filled with both trepidation and awe as she stared out at the great red expanse that was Korriban as it rose up to fill the viewport.

Korriban. The dead planet, the homeworld of the Sith, the under-no-circumstances-should-you-ever-go-here-Ahsoka-we-mean-it. The Jedi Council would have skinned her alive had she gone here alone and without their permission, back when she was a Padawan of the Order.

_Well_ , Ahsoka thought with a mental huff, _they’re not here to stop me now, are they?_

It had been some time since she left the Order. Years. The galaxy had moved on, power had shifted, but Ahsoka was still figuring things out. It was her desire to know herself that had sent her to Korriban in the first place. She had heard the stories and legends and read what she could from the Temple Archives, and had decided that it was as good a place as any if she wanted to test herself. Or maybe it was her curiosity, the part of her that thrived on adventure.

Whatever the case it was too late to turn back now. The little freighter soared down through the wispy layer of clouds and dropped toward the great expanse of dust and rock. Ahsoka hoped she could land it properly; she hadn’t had much time to look it over after she had stolen it. She could tell that it wasn’t in the greatest shape; one of the back engines kept overheating and she could not for the life of her figure out where that annoying _tik-tik-tikking_ sound was coming from. In addition, every surface in it stank of unwashed pirate, but Korriban was only a quick jump away from Florrum so she knuckled down and ignored it as best she could.

Ahsoka set the vessel down on a rocky outcropping that looked thick enough to hold it and hoped that she had done a good enough parking job that it wouldn’t roll right off the edge while she was away. She didn’t want to land on one of the plains for fear of quicksand and other dangers. The Jedi claimed that Korriban was uninhabited, but she wasn’t sure if that assessment included wildlife or not.

Psyching herself up, she tugged on her boots and adjusted her jacket, clipped her lightsabers to her belt, gave her knuckles a good pop, and strode out into the desert. It was about midday in this region, the sun almost directly overhead. Dust swirled around her ankles, carried by hot winds that seemed intent on baking her alive as she wound her way down the cliffs, away from her ship and safety.

Ahsoka found herself in a deep pass. She could see the end in the distance, a bright point of open ground at the end of the rocky tunnel. Rocks clattered in the distance, no doubt blown by the wind―she hoped. There were many passages that lead out of the main gorge, and she found herself reflexively gripping the pommel of her lightsaber. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but if she kept following her instincts she was sure to find… something.

The Sith once had temples and academies just like the Jedi, and it was relatively common knowledge in some circles that Korriban was home to most of them, and of the biggest and, probably, most illustrious of them all. She had made a point to avoid that one and it’s ‘Valley of the Dark Lords’ as she was flying in, but she had seen a few of the minor ones as she was descending, nothing but old bricks haunted by the memory of life.

It was one of these temples that she encountered when she finally emerged out the end of the gorge, set into its own little valley.

A ridge of red sand flowed downward from the mouth of the tunnel. Ahsoka stood at its top, surveying the ruins. The main building was roughly pyramid-shaped, or might have been at one time, and was surrounded by suspiciously flat expanses of rock and sand dotted with smaller structures that were too eroded for her to tell what shape they might have taken. Even from a distance she could feel the faint tang of the dark side, like a prickle at the back of her mind. It was uncomfortable and, she reminded herself, only likely to get worse.

But she didn’t come here for nothing. _I am not afraid_. Ahsoka repeated it to herself silently as she slid down the hill of sand and trudged out across the rocky plain. It was clearly an unnatural formation, dotted with holes and scarred with crevices. She made her way across carefully, watching where she was going, hopping over cracks and making sure not to step or fall into any holes. She still didn’t know what purpose this place had served. One wrong step and she could be dumped somewhere undesirable.

Ahsoka stopped a good distance away from the gaping entrance to the main structure itself. The prickling had turned into a constant buzz, but she noticed as she approached that it was not intentionally focused on her, unlike any of the other sources she had encountered on her travels. She just happened to be standing in the way of the tide. Curious…

This revelation did not make the doorway any less menacing. It was formed entirely of sharp angles and led away into darkness, the light fading far quicker than it should. Ahsoka took a deep breath and let it out. “I am not afraid,” she said aloud, and half expected the temple to answer her. Thankfully, it stayed silent.

She drew and ignited one of her lightsabers, holding the bright white light out ahead of her as she advanced into the maw. It swallowed her whole and soon she had left the scorching light of the desert behind completely. She followed the path of buzzing, racing dark side energy, advancing cautiously, her senses on full alert and her montrals tipped forward to listen for any scrape or clatter that might herald danger.

As she walked she noticed more and more details appearing on the worn stone walls, faint scratchings and symbols. Texts, she presumed, from a long lost civilization. Ahsoka had no idea what they said or if they said anything at all, even after stopping to examine them. They matched nothing she had ever seen or read. The markings got thicker and thicker the farther down she went and soon she found that she could not walk more than a few metres without coming across a cluster of them. Oddly enough, they didn’t seem to be affected by the structure’s state of advanced decay.

There were doors as well, but they were few and far between and had suffered in their age. She got the feeling that they were not to be disturbed. They were not her goal.

A few turns later and Ahsoka found herself in an actual room. It was small and contained no furniture of any sort, not even the hint that there might once have been. The walls were covered in writing; sharp, angular letters arranged in neat lines. There was what looked like a door directly ahead of her. Casting out her senses she could feel something very powerful on the other side, something heavily seeped in the dark side. She shivered, withdrawing.

_Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all_ , she thought. Maybe she should just leave, find her way out, return to her ship and go find something more mundane to meditate on.

Then again, she knew from experience that all it was likely to net her was a sunburn and sand down her trousers.

Ahsoka looked once again to the door. She was brave, right? Strong. She could handle this. The dark side had no sway over her; it wasn’t even bothered by her presence. Just a little peek wouldn’t hurt, surely.

Walking over, she one-handedly examined the door. By the light of her saber she could see that there were grooves cut into the surface, paths that took jagged turns here and there but all ended up meeting in the very centre. It was a vicious sort of beautiful…

She traced one of the paths with a finger―and got quite a shock when the entire design suddenly lit up bright red at the faintest touch to its middle.

Startled, Ahsoka leapt back into a battle stance. Heart racing, she watched the door recede jerkily into the wall with the grind of stone on stone. Peeking through into the chamber beyond, she could make out something in the distance. The room seemed very big but she could only guess its exact size for it was shrouded in complete darkness. There was something in the centre, visible only because of its dim red glow. It looked a bit like a pedestal.

It throbbed with energy, like a heartbeat, and no matter how hard she tried she could not tear her eyes away from it. _Careful, Snips_ , a part of her brain warned her, but her legs were already moving. They carried her all the way over to it until she was standing a mere foot away, entranced. It looked like a tiny glass pyramid half encased in stone, humming its dark song and pulsing with light and energy at every chorus. It was infinitely intricate, for something so small, and the crisscrossing lines of red that made up its delicate interior reminded her somewhat of wires. A holocron?

Ahsoka couldn’t help herself. She touched it.

Several things happened at once.

A sharp stab of cold seemed to prick her hand, leeching it of all its warmth all the way up to her elbow. Broken from her trance, Ahsoka drew it back sharply, examining it for damage. She found none. Still holding her hand close to her chest, she watched as lines of dusky red flowed out from the base of the pedestal like rivers of old blood. They looked exactly like the ones on the door, except wider and darker and so cold she could feel it through the soles of her boots. They reached the far walls all at once, illuminating them―

―and then the figures appeared.

Ahsoka froze, grip hard on her ignited lightsaber. They were red, giving off the same light as the pyramid that had spawned them, and were translucent; she could see straight through them. Were they holoprojections? If so, where were the projectors? She hoped they were just projections, she didn’t fancy having to fight a bunch of ghosts. You can’t kill something that’s already dead, and the Force can be a malevolent thing when it wants to be, especially in a place like this.

To her relief, however, the figures payed her no mind. They were busy conversing with each other. Watching them, Ahsoka was reminded of the holodramas she used to sneak into her quarters back in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Curiosity eventually outweighed caution, and she walked over to one of the displays. The light from her saber washed out much of the projection, so she extinguished it. Closer now, she could hear that the figures were speaking. It sounded faint, like a speaker clogged with dust, and she strained to make it out.

“ _Come, Vasathic, you didn’t really think your ploy would work?_ ” said the first one. It was humanoid and cloaked with many layers of fabric. “ _It’s offensive, that you would think so little of me._ ”

“ _Who says it didn’t?_ ” said the second figure, similarly garbed. “ _I am well aware of your many strengths, Master. That is why I have won._ ” It spread its arms. “ _You claim that I have failed, but still you followed me here. Perhaps it is_ you _who think too little of_ me.”

“ _You are too haughty for your own good._ ”

“ _I learnt from the very best,_ ” said the second figure, and Ahsoka recognised the scathing tone as very similar to one her old Master, Anakin Skywalker, had employed on many occasions.

“ _Come, then, disrespectful wretch. I will make your end long and painful,_ ” said the first figure. It drew a lightsaber from within its cloak and ignited it.

The second figure copied the gesture, holding its saber out in front of it. “ _Gladly. You’ll find your powers have diminished here. I wonder how well you fight without them._ ”

The first threw itself forward with a snarl. The clash of plasma against plasma sounded muffled and distant as the two figures locked themselves in a deadly dance. Ahsoka moved out of their way, perhaps unnecessarily, as the recorded battle played out. Eventually, the second figure overpowered the first and ran it through. It slumped to the ground, lightsaber clattering soundlessly from lifeless fingers. The apprentice stood over its body triumphantly―

―And then the figures disappeared, flashing from existence for a split second to reappear at their original positions. Ahsoka jogged back over from where the battle had taken her, arriving in time to hear the first lines replayed over again. So it _was_ just a projection, or at least some kind of ancient recording. Curiously, she waved a hand through the body of one of the figures as it spoke; it went right through, and she felt nothing, not even the faint flash of cold that she had expected.

The next projection depicted an entire scene, complete with half-rendered rocks and other details staining the floor. Three figures loomed over a fourth, wearing varying densities of armour. The kneeling man (and she was fairly certain it was a man) was dressed eerily like a Jedi. Ahsoka waited for it to loop.

To her frustration, the three figures spoke a language that she did not understand. She could, however, tell that whatever they were saying was meant to be intimidating, the long, sharp words they uttered hissed in an angry fashion.

The Jedi cringed in on himself. “ _I did not mean to intrude. Let me fix my ship and I’ll leave in peace. I promise I’ll speak of this to no one._ ”

One of the three figures spat something brief, pointing at him with unrestrained anger. Another lifted the man off the ground with its mind, hand outstretched and clawed. The Jedi could not have responded had he wanted to.

Then the entire scene dissolved into red static. Ahsoka knew there was much more to it, but the image refused to resolve itself. All around the room, the other displays had suffered the same. Her first assumption was that the tech had failed due to its age and the stress of being reawakened, but she soon discovered that that was not the case.

Standing on the steps to the middle pedestal was another projection, a single figure knit of the same red light. Unlike the rest, it was clearly tied to the holocron by thin beams. Also unlike the rest it was in startlingly clear focus. It was staring right at her; with one hand, it beckoned. Ahsoka drew her lightsabers and, after a moment’s hesitation, obeyed, but only to certain degree. She was unwilling to get as close to the pedestal as she had before.

The figure was draped in a plain robe and was of a humanoid race she had never seen before. It said something in the same language the three had, but spoke the words at a calm, even pace. It twitched, and repeated (she assumed) in Basic, “It has been three thousand six hundred and forty two years since this facility was last activated. Systems are functioning at sub-optimal levels.”

Ahsoka raised her sabers a little higher. “Uuuh, hello?”

The projection looked at her with a new intensity. “Species identified. Welcome, Togruta. What is your purpose here? Why have you awakened me?”

“It was an accident, I think,” Ahsoka said, feeling a little uncomfortable. Was this thing an AI? She hoped so. “What is this place?”

“This temple was meant to serve as an archive of memories. You may call it a library. It is unfinished, and scans show the lower levels to be unstable,” the hologram explained. “It was conceived by Lord Mixzian, but the project was cancelled soon after it begun. I was made in his image after his death.”

“So you’re definitely not a ghost?”

“The word ‘ghost’ does not correlate with my state of being.”

_Oo-kay_. “You said ‘archive of memories.’ How can you store a memory?”

“Technology was developed to capture the thoughts of sentients and store it as data. The process proved to have too high a mortality rate for the Empire to bother investing any more time into it, and it was forcibly shut down and its workers terminated.”

Alarmed, Ahsoka said, “Terminated?”

“I do not have access to further data.”

“Somebody must’ve really wanted them dead,” she mused. “I can’t imagine why they’d all be killed just for that. I mean, maybe the ones who were sucking out people’s brains, but not _everyone_ …”

“I am not partial to such extrapolations.”

“Alright, fine.” She was almost glad. This AI seemed to like to ramble on, and she really didn’t want to know the details anyway. “But why build this here? Seems like a bit of a strange place for a library.”

The AI didn’t respond. It stood still, as if frozen in invisible ice.

A faint prickle crawled up her spine. Ahsoka turned to look at the entrance, finding it securely sealed; it must have closed at some point without her noticing. Looking around anew, she noticed lines on the wall that she was pretty sure weren’t there before. “What’s going on?”

The AI stayed silent. Ahsoka was about to start touching things again when it abruptly began speaking.

“Lifesigns detected within range of the core. DNA scan partial match; lifesigns deducted to be Tuk’ata. Designation: hostile. Warning, data not found, switching to backup. Warning, backup data not found, rerouting.” It raised one hand, outstretched toward a point far beyond and above her head. “Engaging security measures.”

Ahsoka didn’t like the sound of that.

She dove to the ground as a bolt of red lightning lanced from the figure’s hand, impacting a receptacle on the far wall; thunder echoed around the room. The grooves in the wall that, until then, had been smouldering dimly suddenly lit up startlingly bright. A wave of light cascaded around the room, throwing the circular chamber and sharply pointed ceiling into sudden detail.

The AI said, “Your sacrifice will be noted. Glory to the Sith Empire.”

And then it vanished, the holocron from which it emanated fading to a dull oxblood.

Ahsoka didn’t have time to ponder why, or how, or when; she knew that she had to get out of this room, perhaps this entire temple, fast. The Force shrieked a warning, and she dove to the side. A blast of energy impacted the spot where she had been standing, leaving a black scorch on the decaying stone. Rolling to her feet, she traced it to its source; a round disc set into the slant of the ceiling. Looking around, she saw similar devices all around the room. Only a few of them seemed to be operational, she noted with relief. The rest remained dark.

One of the ‘operational’ ones, however, appeared to be in the process of ripping itself from the ceiling; stones clattered down from above. Ahsoka decided that now would be a good time to get going.

It pained her to destroy such an ancient relic, but the door had to go. She took a moment to admire its sharp beauty before plunging both her lightsabers deep into the stone. Thankfully, the door was not very thick, and the stone from which it was fashioned was old and worn. Had she tried this stunt when it was new she would have not gotten far, but in its current state it yielded, although slowly. Behind her, she could hear the mechanism break free and crash to the ground with a thundering _boom_. Dust wafted around her feet.

The pattern on the door withered and died. Ducking through, she emerged into the engraved antechamber. The AI had spoken of something called ‘Tuk’ata.’ She did not know what that was, but judging by the system’s reaction it was not likely to be good.

The outer chamber had changed as well, the grooves that ran along the base of the walls lit up with the same glow. Ahsoka crouched lower to the ground and advanced along the wall. She could sense a new aura of danger that she couldn’t before, and although it might just be the newly awakened defence system she got the feeling like it wasn’t. It felt… different. She tried to search for it, but the feeling came back fuzzy and indistinct. It felt close, but how much so she couldn’t tell. The glow of her lightsabers was likely to attract the attention of these ‘Tuk’ata’ quickly, but she would rather not be caught off guard without her weapons at the ready. Besides, it wasn’t like there was any darkness left to hide in anymore; the place was lit up like a nightclub on Coruscant.

A faint rumble shook the ground beneath her feet. Stones clattered, and for a second the light from the grooves flickered out.

Advancing forward, Ahsoka let her senses guide her through the maze of corridors. Coming down, she hadn’t paid much attention to the path she took. She hoped that she could make it out in one piece, not get lost to starve or be eaten by Tuk’ata or any other horrors that had made this ruin their home.

Or, she thought anxiously as another rumble shook the structure, get crushed if this place fell down―an outcome that was looking increasingly likely by the minute.

She could hear faint growls and hisses following her through the hallways, but whenever she turned to look she saw nothing. After a few minutes, she noticed that, while guttural and mangled, the growls of the Tuk’ata were forming words, some of which she had heard from the core holograms. She wondered what they were saying, and then she wondered whether or not they were sentient. If they were, perhaps she could reason with them.

Or maybe that was a stupid idea.

The ground rumbled again, harder than ever, and then all at once the lights went out, leaving her standing in the dark.

This time, they did not come back on.

She heard what sounded distressingly like rocks collapsing some distance away, the sound mingling with and nearly drowning out the Tuk’ata’s growls. Ahsoka realised that she had stopped and forced herself to continue onward. She increased her pace from a walk to a jog, then from a jog to a run as bricks came loose around her.

The growls followed her through the labyrinth as surely as she followed her senses. At one point she glanced over her shoulder, receiving a jolt of terror when she noticed the dull red glow of eyes in the darkness, no more than ten metres away. The scrape of claws felt right on her heels.

The Force issued a warning, and Ahsoka spun just in time to catch the first Tuk’ata with the blade of her lightsaber as it leapt into her pool of light. It hissed in pain, pawing at the burn across its short snout. Ahsoka did not have time to be horrified by its vicious appearance, for she was already off running again. These corridors were far too narrow for a fight and she knew that if she stopped now neither she nor the Tuk’ata would make it out of this place alive.

A section of the ceiling ahead of the caved in, half blocking the way forward. Gathering the Force around herself, Ahsoka leapt and dove through the gap between the top of the pile and the darkened depths above. In her state of heightened awareness, she could see the end of the corridor ahead, even in total darkness. It slanted sharply upward, and her mind’s eye tracked the ascent of the staircase as far as it could and came to the conclusion that it would carry her almost to the surface. _And a good thing too_ , she thought as more rubble fell around her, _because I don’t think this place has long to live_.

Ascending the steps was a gruelling feat for her already tired legs, but she ignored their burning protests and pushed onward. She did not even slow down as she cleared the top, immediately bursting forward into a new maze. This one rang with traces of the surface; fresh air blew in from somewhere and sand piled along the edges of the walls.

One more corner and she was rewarded with the view of light up ahead. Daylight, sweet daylight; never before in her life had Ahsoka been so glad to see it.

She burst out the front entrance and came to an immediate, skidding halt. Squinting in the light, she registered the scene. The flat plateau that she had crossed before was in the process of collapsing, and only then did she realise that it was not a plateau at all but instead the ceilings of the rooms below, once buried in sand long gone.

A sizeable chasm had already opened ahead of her and many more were in the process of forming beyond. She was going to have to jump from section to section to make it across. She extinguished her lightsabers and did so, landing on the other side of the chasm and immediately springing away again. For a moment she was reminded of the practices younglings were required to do in the Jedi Temple. This was almost the same―except larger and infinitely more deadly.

On her next jump, as she was distracted by that thought, the section of roofing that she was aiming for collapsed before she could reach it. She watched it crumble away from the air, leaving her to impact the jagged remains of the still-standing wall a ways down. She caught it one handed, wheezing. She had not been dangling for a few seconds and already she could feel the brick coming loose under her weight. Quickly, she used it and the foothold she braced herself against to launch herself up.

Ahsoka landed unsteady on the surface above, still unable to properly catch her breath. She had no choice but to keep moving. The edge of the desert proper was only a short distance ahead, and after a few leaps she had made it safely onto steady ground.

Behind her, she watched the temple collapse. It disappeared into itself as if swallowed by the mouth of a sarlacc, bricks crumbling and inert emitters sparking, torn apart by the very thing that was designed to protect it. The Tuk’ata that had followed her to the surface disappeared in slides of rubble, shrieking all the way.

Ahsoka stood there, staring, for a few moments, and then turned away. She felt utterly exhausted. Her chest hurt, and the scrapes and bruises she had accumulated were building up into a thoroughly unpleasant feeling. She wanted nothing more than to return to her ship and collapse into one of the bunks, pirate-stink and all.

She made her way back. Her ship was, thankfully, exactly where she had left it. She made her way inside, not bothering to take her boots or belt off before she flopped down into bed.

She was sure that Korriban had much more for her to explore, but if it had been waiting for millennia it could wait a little longer.


End file.
